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print versionExistential terror
Why has the prime minister’s party rallied around the toxic figure of Brij Bhushan for as long as it has? There are two explanations: one is political, the other, existential
by Mukul Kesavan
Published 04.06.23
Why is the protest by Sakshi Malik and Vinesh and Sangeeta Phogat and their allies so important?
First, it’s a high-profile MeToo moment in a country where the sexual abuse of women is normal. It features heroines who are mainstream in every way in this majoritarian moment: they are Hindu, Hindi-speaking, farmers’ daughters. These are rural women; and the kisan’s grip on the nation’s sentimental imagination, as Narendra Modi learnt to his cost during the farmers’ agitation, rivals that of the jawan.
Their sporting achievements are gold-plated even when they come in bronze because of the scarcity of Olympic medallists in India. They have been pictured with the prime minister and virtually every VIP in government, so it is very hard to reduce them to terrorists or anti-national malcontents or ‘toolkit’ artists. They are, in fact, just the people the Bharatiya Janata Party would die to have on its side. Vinesh Phogat looks like she has just walked off a Soviet-style poster lauding the Heroes of the Motherland.
If these women are heroines from central casting, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh could have strolled into Sholay as one of Gabbar’s retinue: the bearded heavy with, allegedly, a sideline in predation. This face-off between brave, striving, successful yet vulnerable women and a hulking, violent neta is not subtle or nuanced: this is a film about good and evil that is so black-and-white that it properly belongs to the silent era when mythologicals ruled, when Krishna triumphed and Kansa died.
And yet the BJP, its troll army, its sadhu brigade, its MPs, its female ministers, its motto-mongering prime minister — beti bachao, beti padhao —remain resolutely in Kansa’s corner, in speech and in silence. A government that has broken every rule in the book to arrest and jail political opponents and civil society activists has morphed into a born-again believer in due process. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s right to the presumption of innocence is the hill it is planning to die on. Why does this monstrously savvy party find itself in this indefensible position?
Nobody believes a word of the narrative that the BJP is trying to peddle, from the allegation that the protesting women were looking for an easy route into Olympic competition, to the claim that this protest was staged to steal Modi’s thunder as he peacocked his way through the new Parliament building with an honour guard of hairy mendicants in sketchy orange uniforms. This is a representative sample of the sort of men who pass as ‘seers’ in desi newspapers, whose Ayodhya chapter was planning a massive demonstration in support of a man accused of being a serial predator. This is the company that the BJP keeps as it tries to persuade voters that the women at the centre of this protest are the real villains of the piece.
It’s not working. Neerja Chowdhury reported that travelling across Haryana, everyone she spoke to, irrespective of caste, community or political affiliation, wanted immediate action against Singh, that there was real rage and anxiety about the security of young women if famous wrestlers can be groped with impunity.
So why has the prime minister’s party rallied around this toxic figure for as long as it has? There are two explanations: one is political, the other, existential. The political explanation is that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh controls the political destiny of half a dozen parliamentary constituencies in his region. Not only has he won elections to Parliament for close to thirty years but his political connections also make an electoral difference in enough races to make him nearly indispensable to the BJP in this heartland state. With mixed results in recent elections and the general elections scheduled for 2024, the party wants to take no chances in Uttar Pradesh.
This is the rational, cynical, explanation. Given the public’s tolerance for legislators who are history sheeters, given the political success of Ajay Bisht, aka Yogi Adityanath, the BJP probably calculated that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s notoriety could be brazened out and would be forgotten by the time the general elections came around. In the context of heartland politics, this was not an unreasonable calculation. But for the gamble to work, the government had to hold its nerve, allow the dharna to continue, accept the criticism that came its way, and wait out the protesting wrestlers.
But the government lost its nerve. It lost its nerve for two reasons. One, the precedent of the farmers’ agitation. A sit-in that lasted indefinitely had already forced Modi to retreat on the farm laws; the government did not want to eat crow again. Two, the decision of the wrestlers to march on Parliament to have their voices heard at the same time as its stage-managed inauguration by Modi stampeded a nervous government into the fatal error of arresting the wrestlers and evicting them from the Jantar Mantar protest site.
Over the nine years of Modi’s prime ministership, the arms of government have remade themselves to pander to his narcissism. For the home ministry and the Delhi Police, the wrestlers’ march was a form of lèse-majesté that demanded punitive action. The government made the elementary error of not factoring in the footage that its strong-arm tactics would generate. That top-down picture of Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat on their backs, struggling against dozens of uniforms, was very likely the moment the government lost this battle in the public’s mind.
But in the end, the government’s support for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was existential, not political. The sangh rallied around Singh because in its deepest being, it is a patriarchal, misogynistic organisation hardwired to discipline recalcitrant women. Just as the sangh parivar uses the idea of a ‘love jihad’ to police the partner choices of Hindu women, it used the Delhi Police to teach successful, articulate, disobedient women a lesson: rebellion doesn’t pay; learn to be pliable clients.
The perfect visual representation of the position of women in the sangh’s imagination is the posed group photograph of the prime minister and a gaggle of sants. They are all men, in fact, they put the men into mendicant. There is, though, one woman. Nirmala Sitharam stands, a little apart, on the margin of the frame.
But the cautionary tale about women who throw their lot in with the BJP is contained in the clip of Meenakshi Lekhi, MP and minister, running away from a young woman reporter. This was in response to a question: what did she have to say about the wrestlers’ vow to drop their medals into the Ganga? Lekhi doesn’t just walk faster, she gallops away as if she were being pursued by a churail, gasping out a pro forma replyabout due process before tumbling into her car and disappearing. That hapless, helter-skelter retreat by a gagged woman too terrified to speak, lest she breach some party line, is the antithesis of the unfettered agency of Malik and the Phogats.
The BJP has lost this battle now. Normally tame newspapers have begun to report that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been gagged and that the proposed rally in his support has been called off. Party operatives will count the cost of this fiasco but for the rest of us, the revelation has been the BJP’s existential terror of independent women.
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Grey silence
The deference of India’s cricketing gods to authority
Mukul Kesavan | Published 30.04.23, 05:56 AM
There have been several public protests in Delhi against the State during Narendra Modi’s prime ministership. The Shaheen Bagh sit-in and the long farmers’ protest are the obvious examples. Compared to these mobilisations, the dharna at Jantar Mantar led by Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Sangeeta Phogat and Bajrang Punia is a small affair. The reason it has dominated the headlines in newspapers, social media and television news is not its size but the starkness of the moral choice it offers readers, viewers and citizens.
On the one side, there are three famous medal-winning women protesting against the sexual harassment female wrestlers have allegedly suffered at the hands of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India.Seven women, including a minor girl, have complained in writing to thiseffect.
On the other side, there is Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a six-time MP, with a rap sheet as long as his time in politics. He has confessed to shooting a man dead on television, and has, in his time, been charged with everything — from robbery to murder. Ranged in his defence are the Delhi Police who didn’t register an FIR till the Supreme Court intervened, the solicitor-general who justified the Delhi Police’s inaction on the grounds of due process, and Anurag Thakur, the minister of sport who buried the matter in an Oversight Committee whose report hasn’t been made public.
This is not a difficult matter to take sides on. It is made easier by the socially mainstream identities of the protesting wrestlers as well as the black-and-white rightness of their cause. One, they aren’t guilty of being Muslim as the Shaheen Bagh women were. Two, while there were plausible arguments made in favour of the prime minister’s farm laws, it’s hard to make a case for sexually molesting female athletes.
A government that claims to live by slogans like ‘Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao’ is now playing defence for a politician who publicly revels in his reputation for violence. The optics of this are so bad that even instinctively craven newspapers and news anchors have begun to report extensively on the dharna.
Despite this, only a handful of sportspersons have come out in solidarity with the wrestlers. Neeraj Chopra, who won an Olympic gold with the javelin, was the first. After his pioneering example, we have had Sania Mirza (tennis), Virender Sehwag, Kapil Dev, Navjot Sidhu, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan (cricket), Ravi Kumar Dahiya (wrestling), Nikhat Zareen (boxing), Rani Rampal and Pargat Singh (hockey), publicly ask for justice for the protesting women. Of these, Sidhu and Harbhajan Singh belong to oppositional political parties. No active cricketers or coaches or franchise-owners have, so far, supported the wrestlers’ cause.
Vinesh Phogat, who has been the dharna’s most articulate spokesperson, called out India’s cricketers for their silence. Given cricket’s complete dominance as a sport in India, given how much cricketers are looked up to, why has no active cricketer offered solidarity? Couldn’t they even put out a neutral statement asking for justice and impartiality?
This is a genuinely interesting question, not just a rhetorical one. This is, after all, exactly what Neeraj Chopra did. His statement is a model of intelligent empathy. “It hurts me to see our athletes on the streets demanding justice. They have worked hard to represent our great nation and make us proud. As a nation we are responsible for safeguarding the integrity and dignity of every individual, athlete or not. What’s happening should never happen. This is a sensitive issue and must be dealt with in an impartial and transparent manner. Pertaining authorities must take quick action in order to ensure that justice is served.”
Chopra is an active athlete. He has most of his career in front of him. The Indian Olympic Association likes pliant athletes. He could have milked his unprecedented Olympic success as the winner of India’s first track and field gold without worrying about the dharna at Jantar Mantar, but he went out of his way to express solidarity. Which brings us back to Vinesh Phogat’s question: what is it that stops India’s cricketers from doing the same?
One possible explanation is that team sports make the individual player answerable to the authority of a club or franchise and that inhibits behaviour that might be seen as out of line with a ruling consensus. Colin Kaepernick’s career was effectively ended by the hostility of National Football League owners to any form of protest that might be seen as unpatriotic or provocative by American football’s overwhelmingly white audience. The English Premier League with its working-class roots might still throw up Marcus Rashford, willing to take issue with the government of the day for the sake of a cause, but the IPL, given its franchise origins, is more like the NFL than the Premier League.
The instinctive deference that Indian cricketers offer up to authority has something to do with its shamateur past. State cricket used to be run by provincial businessmen like P.M. Rungta and N. Srinivasan who found sinecures for players in their companies and elsewhere so that they could make a living that the game itself couldn’t then provide. They were cricket’s patrons, and the players were their clients.
This habit of being creatures of patrons survived cricket’s transformation into a hugely lucrative sport. With the coming of the IPL came proper cricketing livelihoods but also new masters. India’s biggest businessmen bought into the new golden goose as did India’s most powerful politicians. A tournament controlled by a cricket association led by the Union home minister’s son and franchises owned by tame billionaires together created cascading incentives for conformity. A career spent on the auction blocks in a sport lacking any tradition of trade union solidarity made the Indian cricketer sports’ most pliant professional.
Vinesh Phogat name-checked Sachin Tendulkar. Why, she asked, is the God of Cricket silent? Tendulkar has spoken on public matters before. When Rihanna and Greta Thunberg expressed their solidarity with the farmers’ protests in 2021, Tendulkar tweeted: “India’s sovereignty cannot be compromised. External forces can be spectators but not participants. Indians know India and should decide for India. Let’s remain united as a nation. #IndiaTogether #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.”
With honorable exceptions like Kapil Dev, Bishen Bedi and Irfan Pathan, Indian cricketers are proxies, not agents. A Delhi Police constable has more agency than the average franchise star. Vinesh Phogat will have to win her battle without the help of her cricketing compatriots. Like hamsters on a wheel, they’re too busy pedaling to look outside their gilded cage.
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Wrestlers shame BJP, and how!
by Ajaz Ashraf
May 1, 2023 | Mumbai
Grapplers’ protest exposes as hollow the party’s claims on gender politics, public morality, of uniting India and Hindus, and reveals its method of breaking agitations and contempt for citizens
There are five perspectives to the battle between the grapplers and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and six-time Lok Sabha MP. The first perspective contrasts the party’s refusal to take action against Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment by seven women wrestlers, including a minor, with its perennial campaign against love jihad in order to protect Hindu women from the ‘lust’ and ‘bigotry’ of Muslims.
Hindutva has traditionally deified women as mothers and sisters, and favours circumscribing their role to mere conveyer belts of culture. It would seem those breaking this mould, as the predominantly rural-based women wrestlers certainly have, will not have the BJP strain its sinews to get them justice, even when they are sexually exploited.
Some hypocrisy, that!
The wrestlers have also exposed as hollow the BJP’s claim to the moral high ground. In a 2022 interview to Lallantop, an online portal, Singh graphically described how he shot dead a person. He did not seem to mind the interviewer calling him a Bahubali or Strongman.
Explaining why he joined the Samajwadi Party, Singh said the BJP had shifted him, in 2004, from Gonda, which had twice elected him an MP, to Balrampur. On the voting day, the BJP’s Gonda candidate died in a road accident. At the sight of Singh, who came to Delhi following his victory in Balrampur, the outgoing Prime Minister A B Vajpayee exclaimed,
“Marwa diya (You got him killed)”. Hurt, Singh jumped ship in 2009.
Singh told Lallantop about Narendra Modi’s call to him before the 2014 elections. Modi asked: “What are you doing?” Singh replied, “Aadesh (Order)?” Modi directed Singh to meet Amit Shah. The BJP fielded him from Kaiserganj. He won. Modi’s BJP is not allergic to recruiting dons.
The politics of polarisation is the third perspective to the wrestlers-Singh confrontation. The wrestlers leading the protest are Jats from Haryana; Singh is a Rajput from Uttar Pradesh. Celebrated grappler Bajrang Punia exposed as fraudulent Hindutva’s mission of uniting India and Hindus thus: “When we win medals, we aren’t from Haryana or a particular community. When we protest for our rights, we are from Haryana. Why this double standard?”
This double standard is the BJP’s favoured weapon of mobilising people against dissidents. The weapon will not lose its sharp edge until citizens, particularly sports icons, side with social groups other than their own whom the BJP selectively targets, isolates and intimidates.
The fourth perspective to the wrestlers’ challenge is to study it for grasping the BJP’s strategy of tackling protests. The wrestlers organised a sit-in in Delhi against Singh in the bitter cold of January. They called it off with the Union Sports Ministry appointing a six-member committee to investigate the charges of sexual harassment against the WFI president. Since the committee’s findings were not released, the wrestlers returned to the protest site.
The wrestlers want Singh to be arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, given that a minor is among those whom he allegedly preyed upon. The BJP applauded Himanta Biswa Sarma, the party’s chief minister in Assam, when he invoked the POCSO Act to arrest scores of men who married, years ago, girls below 14 years old. But mum’s the word on the demand for arresting Singh.
Dilatory tactics were also employed by the BJP to try to stall the 2020-21 farmer protests against the three laws enacted without consulting them. They were first disparaged as Khalistanis. Next, the government tried to sweet-talk them into joining the committee the Supreme Court had constituted for rethinking the three laws. They refused, believing the committee was packed with members in sync with the government’s opinion.
Violence was then fomented on the 2021 Republic Day to shatter the resolve of farmers, who persisted with their protest until the government caved in. Likewise, Muslim protesters against the new citizenship law were demonised, and violence engineered to disrupt their agitation.
The wrestlers’ protest is still at the first stage, evident from the Indian Olympic Association President P T Usha slamming them for ‘tarnishing’ the country’s image. The wrestlers should know that the BJP’s decisiveness is about not accepting mistakes—and atoning for them. A long haul awaits them.
Perhaps they do know this, for, as medallist Vinesh Phogat explained, they had earlier, in January, disallowed politicians to come to the protest site, fearing that the wrestlers would be seen as “trying to play politics”. But “fooled” then, they have invited Opposition leaders to support them now. Indeed, they cannot escape being political, which is the only way they can resolve their troubles arising from systemic flaws.
The fifth perspective can be had by asking: Is Singh so indispensable to the BJP as to have it endure shaming media headlines daily? Sure, he belongs to the Rajput community, the BJP’s steadfast supporter.
But then, there is no Rajput leader in Uttar Pradesh bigger than Chief Minister Adityanath; no bigger vote-catcher than Modi. Perhaps the BJP fears that conceding the wrestlers’ demand would make it appear a weakling whom citizens can browbeat into submission, shattering the party’s very self-image.
The writer is a senior journalist.
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The wrestlers’ cause is everybody’s cause
by Geetanjali Shree
May 01, 2023
The wrestlers’ protest shows that those in positions of power have lost none of their sense of utter impunity.
As a creative writer, I need solitude to work. However, it becomes impossible to stay away when something so unjust occurs. Our ace wrestlers have been forced to take to the streets after being denied simple justice. As proud professionals, they understand that their hard work has taken them to the top of their sport and will keep them there. With each lost day of work, they risk losing their coveted position. This is precisely the risk they have taken by protesting on the streets. In fact, the act of protesting itself puts them in danger of losing what they have worked so hard to achieve.
Can we be so callous as to not understand that something dire must be at the root of their potentially suicidal actions? This “something” must be worth more than all the glory the sport can bring them. The wrestlers have put everything on the line. No one can pretend not to know that a noble impulse has occasioned their heroic action, and that fame and material gain cannot come at the cost of self-respect and dignity.
These wrestlers have made us proud, and we have basked in their reflected glory. Do we feel any gratitude for the laurels they have brought us?
But gratitude is the least of the reasons why we must stand with them. Momentous issues are at stake in their fight. At stake is the dignity of every woman in this country. At stake is that basic requirement of harmonic social existence, the rule of law. At stake is our freedom to pursue our passions and ambitions without fear of unwarranted interference and degrading molestation. At stake is basic human decency. And our human mettle, our individual and social conscience.
But, then, all this has been at stake for frustratingly far too long. This is not the first instance of circumstantially credible allegations of female athletes being subjected by sports officials to the ignominy of sexual advances and worse. Nor is this the first instance of our police refusing to register an FIR so as to protect the powerful. The rule of law, not unoften, has been used as an instrument of thwarting the rule of law.
The wrestlers’ stir brings nothing new to light. But what it brings to light is no less frightening for not being new. When the stir was set afoot early this year by the country’s most illustrious wrestlers, no one expected it to usher in a new dawn but even confirmed sceptics thought that it could result in focussing attention on the problem and lead to some redressal. It was hard to believe that these champions could be treated with such disdain.
The wrestlers’ stir shows that the wielders of power have lost none of their sense of utter impunity. It also shows, by the same token, the vulnerability of the rest of the society. Power must never be allowed to get so brazen. Nor those sans power—not just those distinguished in various fields—be ever rendered so vulnerable.
There is no civic life if the commonest of commoners cannot live with dignity and without fear. Justice is not justice if it is not available as a matter of course, if it is contingent on agitation and knocking at the Supreme Court’s door.
The wrestlers’ cause, if only we understand it, is everyone’s cause. How much more self-diminution shall we accept? Even worms turn when trodden upon. The longer the impunity of power continues, the heavier will be the odds against defeating it.
Now that the wrestlers’ FIRs have been registered for fear of the Supreme Court, the legal process may start taking its course. That process must not be short-circuited or otherwise manipulated. That is known to happen.
Finally, a simple human plea. We are speaking of the molestation of women. Patriarchal societies have a systemic “gaze” that often fails to recognize acts of molestation, unless it is an extreme and violent rape of visibly monstrous proportions. During the outrage over the brutal rape and killing of Nirbhaya, I was asked by a very agitated male relative how I, a woman, was sitting so calmly while he, a male, was raving in rage and demanding the perpetrators be hanged. I replied—and I know all sensitive persons would agree—that Nirbhaya was the extreme and ugly-most outcome of a male society’s gaze and attitude vis-a-vis women; that demeaning gaze and attitude needs to be “hanged”.
We are surrounded by that gaze and its rampant nature makes many behave as if it is innocuous. What is the hue and cry about, they ask? The man was only friendly, flirty, or just did an innocent buddy “pat”, they say. They will not understand that one indecent look violates a woman and is part of the dirtiest way a woman is regarded, robbing her of her dignity and personhood.
Think of this and of the average make-up of our men, no matter powerful or powerless, when you think, prima facie, of whether the female wrestlers complaining of abuse are telling the truth or lying. Of course, you will not forget what all in the bargain they have put on the line.
Geetanjali Shree is a Hindi-language novelist and short story writer based in New Delhi. She won the International Booker Prize in 2022 for the novel Tomb of Sand (translated by Daisy Rockwell).
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Indian Female Wrestlers: The Body Politic of Resistance
by Sharda Ugra (May 31, 2023)
How Vinesh and Sangeeta Phogat, Sakshi Malik and other wrestlers have turned their bodies into sites of resistance and restraint https://thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/culture/indian-female-wrestlers-the-body-politic-of-resistance-5518
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The Indian Express May 24, 2023
Editorial
Express View on wrestlers’ protest: Unseeing eye, deaf ear
What will it take for the nation’s finest wrestlers to get their voice heard by those who have power to act against the accused? Surely, they deserve an answer.
The report by a probe committee led by boxing great MC Marykom hasn’t yet been made public.
How many times do victims have to speak up before they get justice” — asks Vinesh Phogat, as the unprecedented sit-in by the country’s top women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar completes a month. She could as well ask a question even more damning of the system that seems to have turned its back to those who have done the country proud, stood at the victory podium, medals around their neck, the national anthem filling the stadium: How many times do victims have to speak up before they are even heard? Because by all accounts, the wrestlers who have made allegations of sexual harassment against the Wrestling Federation chief and BJP MP, Brij Bhushan Singh, are unseen and unheard by the powers that be. This unseeing eye and deaf ear, this hard wall of silence, worsens their ordeal that began when they took their courage in both hands and mounted a collective fight against a powerful politician and sports administration. The report by a probe committee led by boxing great MC Marykom hasn’t yet been made public. IOA president PT Usha berated them for taking to the street. Delhi Police continue to drag their feet in a case involving a minor. Members of the Oversight Committee asked for audio and video evidence of Singh’s sexual advances.
In a piece written for this newspaper, Phogat shared her experience of sleeping under the stars and fighting to be heard by those who, in earlier times, would rush to be in the same frame during victory celebrations. For the gritty Haryana pehlwan, the hurt is, most of all, about being stonewalled by those who celebrate “desh ki betiyan” in photo-ops and slogans — but only till the nation’s daughters speak up and demand justice. The only voice from the ruling party that has been heard during this Wrestlers vs Singh showdown is that of Singh. The five-time MP from UP has sought to malign the victims. In his many interviews, he has called the protesting wrestlers pawns in a game that ostensibly involves opposition parties, a top industrialist, one “businessman baba” and a top official of the Sports Authority. He is being given the room to make unsubstantiated claims and to smear what is Indian sport’s most serious and sweeping case of alleged sexual harassment.
Express View: Questions remain after expert committee report on Adani
Singh’s party, the BJP, has made no move, so far, to reach out to the protesting women athletes or to censure or distance itself from Singh — no minister, not even Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, who speaks her mind and is otherwise not known to hold back from making a point on women’s issues, has reached out to them. Of course, the legal process must run its course but that cannot be cover for the sheer withholding and denial of sensitivity by the ruling party and government. It was the BJP government that asked a minister to step down from office days after testimonies by women alleging sexual harassment and predatory behaviour became public — MJ Akbar, then MoS for external affairs, had to resign in 2018. And yet, five years on, Singh struts around, as the women, among the nation’s finest wrestlers, protest on a footpath and in the open. Phogat wrote that her mother is scared and worried and keeps asking her, “Beta, kuch hoga? (Will something happen?” The least she deserves is an honest answer — from those who have the power to act against the accused.
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What the wrestlers’ protest says about power and politics in India by Jagmati Sangwan, Indu Agnihotri (April 28, 2023) https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/what-the-wrestlers-protest-says-about-power-and-politics-in-india-8578938/
The distastefulness in PT Usha’s stand on the wrestlers’ protest
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/distastefulness-pt-usha-s-stand-wrestlers-protest-176593
’Cut power, no water at Jantar Mantar’: Bajrang Punia targets Delhi Police after FIRs against WFI chief by Ritu Maria Johny (April 29, 2023) https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/wrestlers-protest-bajrang-punia-delhi-police-wfi-chief-brij-bhushan-power-water-cut-at-jantar-mantar-101682733011343.html
"Where is Sachin Tendulkar, the God of Cricket, Where is Aamir Khan who made Dangal"- seething @Phogat_Vinesh on @themojostory
on the #WrestlersProtest, the silence of public figures & why she wont move till Brij Bhushan Singh is arrested. Full interview https://www.youtube.com/live/oppyq7J9GRA?feature=share
Ravish Kumar’s report https://youtu.be/LiOzOT7r-eI
India’s female wrestlers threaten to hand back Olympic medals in harassment row by Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi (7 May 2023) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/07/india-female-wrestlers-threaten-to-hand-back-olympic-medals-in-harassment-row
Inherent inequalities
Barring a few Olympians and cricketers — Kapil Dev was among them — other top sportspersons have not opened their mouths in support of the protesting wrestlers
by Dipsita Dhar (28 May 2023) https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/inherent-inequalities-the-wrestlers-protest-reveals-deeper-complexities/cid/1940237
Far-right Hindu nationalists are using digital propaganda to delegitimize India’s wrestler protests
by Ashique Ali Thuppilikkat (5 June 2023) https://theconversation.com/far-right-hindu-nationalists-are-using-digital-propaganda-to-delegitimize-indias-wrestler-protests-206747
The Incredible Women Wrestlers Who Pinned India’s Prime Minister by Nitish Pahwa (June 11, 2023) https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/wrestlers-women-india-protests-vinesh-phogat-modi-brij-bhushan.html
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Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) | Press Release - 6th May, 2023
SKM Announces Nation-wide Agitation Programs in Support of Protesting Wrestlers & Demands Arrest of BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh
Delhi, 6th May, 2023: SKM today announced a nation-wide agitation program in support of women wrestlers who have been protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar since 23rd April 2023, after the Modi Govt failed to fulfil its promise to the sportspersons given in January 2023 to investigate and take necessary steps against BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, against whom very serious allegations of sexual harassment have been made by the women sportspersons, including a minor.
On 7th May, several senior leaders of SKM from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh, with hundreds of farmers, shall once again visit the protest site at Jantar Mantar and extend fullest support to the wrestlers. SKM Leaders shall also lead deputation to important administrative and political persons like Commissioner of Police, Delhi, Union Sports Minister, Home Minster etc. and demand immediate arrest of Brij Bhushan Saran Singh.
From 11th to 18th May, an all-India agitation program shall be held in all states of India, at State Capitals, District HQ and Taluk HQ. Public Meetings and Protest Marches shall be held and Effigy of Brij Bhushan Saran Singh and his supporter, the BJP Union Govt shall be burned.
SKM strongly condemns Delhi Police for not acting with due sensitivity as per the law to arrest the accused and ensure in-camera proceedings. SKM also condemns Delhi Police’s denial of basic civil rights of the protesting sportspersons (who are pride of the nation) of access to water, electricity, protection, bedding etc.
It may be kept in mind that the national meeting of SKM held on 30th April 2023 had firmly and unequivocally expressed support to and solidarity with the protesting women wrestlers of India and demanded immediate arrest of BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh.
Media Cell | Samyukt Kisan Morcha
Contact: samyuktkisanmorcha[at]gmail.com
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http://www.sacw.net/article15186.html
Statement from National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
Solidarity with Women Wrestling Against Abusive Power
Arrest Brij Bhushan Singh | Democratize Sports Federations
7th May, 2023: National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) expresses full solidarity with the women wrestlers of our country who have been agitating for action against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and BJP MP from Kaiserganj (UP), on grounds of repeated instances of sexual harassment and abuse of power. We condemn the callousness and high-handedness of the Union Government that has not only failed to act on the serious charges (FIRs) against Brij Bhushan Singh (two under the POCSO Act), but has been actively protecting him, despite the matter having been raised repeatedly, over the last two years by the women wrestling champions, meriting intervention even by the Supreme Court.
The entire country and the world-at-large has been witnessing this sordid saga of the internationally renowned wrestlers having to fight for justice, protesting again at Jantar Mantar since 23rd April 2023, while those in high positions of power are doing everything possible to not only deny them justice and the right to protest, but also discredit them and previous democratic movements, such as the farmers protests. Going by current information, the ‘Committee’ constituted by the Sports Ministry and IOA seems more like an eye-wash. We are, therefore, fully supportive of the demand that Mr. Singh be expelled as WFI President and an independent inquiry be conducted into the matter, given the apathy, inaction and non-accountability on part of the WFI and Govt. of India.
We also strongly denounce the manner in which the Delhi Police has manhandled the protestors, be it at Jantar Mantar or in other parts of Delhi, attempting to forcibly disband the rightful and peaceful gathering, inflicting abuse and violence on sportspersons and students, and denying the democratic right to protest, in face of systemic apathy. It is amply clear that people like Mr. Singh are indicative of the criminalization and corruption within the institutions of this Govt., who seem to receive patronage at the highest levels, including from the Prime Minister and Home Minister.
Sexual violence and harassment at work places is a serious offence and given its all-pervasive prevalence in all workspaces, the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, 2013 was enacted by the Indian Parliament, after protracted struggles by the feminist movements in India. It is a colossal shame that even a decade after passing of the law, over half of the sports federations in India still have not set up Internal Complaints Committees, mandatory for all governmental and private organizations in the country. This is but one indicator of the utterly patriarchal nature of public, institutional and workspaces in our society.
Akin to its miserable role in previous instances like Kathua, Gujarat, Hathras, this episode has, yet again, exposed the hollowness and complicity of the Government that raises empty slogans of ‘empowering’ women and girls, even as it protects the powerful perpetrators and its own vested interests. That even those who brought laurels to the country are not spared the wrath of the regime, speaks volumes. In such a scenario, it is indeed heartening to witness the swelling strength and solidarity to the Wrestlers struggle in Delhi and across rural and urban India, much needed in the current times, to take on the arrogance of the fascists-in-power, even as many ‘celebrities’ choose to remain mum or take the side of the oppressors.
WE DEMAND:
- · Govt of India must immediately arrest Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, based on FIRs filed.
- · An independent inquiry must be instituted into all the charges of sexual harassment, corruption and abuse of authority by Mr. Singh and WFI.
- · The right to protest of the wrestlers and those in solidarity with them must be fully upheld and legal action must be taken against the police officials for their violent excesses.
- · Democratization of all Sports Federations and bodies, replacing corrupt, abusive persons in positions of power, with those who are competent and committed to the well-being of sportspersons and sport.
- · Implementation of Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, 2013 in full letter and spirit, across all workplaces.
Issued by National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
E-mail: napmindia[at]gmail.com
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http://www.sacw.net/article15197.html
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDIAN WOMEN
1002, Ansal Bhawan, 16, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi - 110 001 Tele : 011-23319541 | E-mail : nfiwdelhi[at]gmail.com
President : Aruna Roy General Secretary : Annie Raja
To, Date: 08/05/2023
Shri. Om Birla
Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Parliament of India
New Delhi
Sub: SUSPENSION OF BRIJ BHUSHAN SHARAN SINGH, MP
Honourable Sir,
The NFIW would like to draw your attention to a very serious issue connected with Mr Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Member of the Lok Sabha, and requesting immediate attention and action from you.
The Delhi Police have registered two FIRs against Mr Brij Bhushan Sharan Sing MP, who holds the position of President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). One FIR is registered under POCSO and is based on the sexual harassment and criminal intimidation complaint of a minor wrestler and the other FIR also arises from similar complaints of sexual harassment under the POSH Act, filed by other young women wresters.
The complainants, including a minor, are those young women, who have brought national and international laurels for India. They have consistently, represented the country over many years, and won medals in the Commonwealth games and in the Olympics too.
These young women worked hard, with determination and put in their best with their blood and sweat, to make India proud. The Prime Minister not only congratulated these wrestlers but appealed to the entire Nation to celebrate the victories of these young enthusiastic women.
Our Constitution and legal system ensure that even verbal abuse is penalized, and justice is delivered to the aggrieved. However, all systems continue to be patriarchal, and corruption and even physical violence is used to deny justice to women in all walks of life.
The entire Nation should be ashamed that women wrestlers, who brought international fame and recognition Indian women internationally, have been denied a proper hearing with due legal process. They have been forced to come to the streets, to stage protests day and night for justice. Despite several months of protest in Delhi, seeking justice the issues raised by them have been ignored by the government. The incident does not promote confidence of women either in the Government of India, or to trust and expect justice from the police, legal system and the Parliamentarians.
We, the NFIW demands the suspension of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, an accused in the sexual harassment and criminal intimidation case, from Parliament with immediate effect.
NFIW also expects appropriate immediate action from you as speaker of the Lok Sabha, and as a representative of the people to uphold women’s dignity and constitutional democratic rights, to act immediately and effectively, so that women can regain some confidence in the criminal justice system.
With the expectation of immediate justice, Regards,
(Aruna Roy) (Annie Raja)
President, NFIW General Secretary, NFIW
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Press Release
The following statement was issued to the press by the Platform of Ten Central Trade Unions after a visit to the site of Dharna at Jantar Mantar today—10th May 2023
The leaders of the Platform of the Ten Central Trade Unions (INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, UTUC) visited the site of the continued peaceful protest dharna for the last 15 days by the women wrestlers with support of mail wrestlers demanding of removal of Mr. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh from the Chairmanship of WFI and for his arrest for the alleged sexual harassment of women wrestlers as per two FIRs, one of which is under POSCO Act.
They gave their support letter and assured of continued support for the cause they have initiated as the struggle is for the whole society, for the rule of law to prevail upon and for the dignity of women be respected.
Those who addressed at the dharna sthal included Amarjeet Kaur General Secretary AITUC, Ashok Singh Vice President INTUC, Sindhu Secretary CITU, Santosh Rai Secretary AICCTU, Chaurasia Secretary Delhi AIUTUC, Lataben Secretary Delhi SEWA, Dharmendra Secretary UTUC, Kuldeep Singh delhi- INTUC among others.
The speakers were critical of the double standards of the ruling dispensation, despite the POCSO act is invoked, arrest of the accused is not affected. He continues to be Chairman of WFI and says that he won’t resign till PM tells him. In a way he is giving signal that he is in the protection of the Prime Minister.
Amarjeet Kaur informed that all unions in the platform have been taking initiatives in their own way. AITUC is pleased that a great response is received from the unions all over India on its call to observe the 9th may, the day of victory of humanity over Fascist tyrant Hitler’s empire in 1945, to observe this day to give solidarity to wrestlers’ agitation for justice and to give a signal to the rulers that the history does not excuse those who try to crush human spirit and dignity.
All leaders emphatically told that the trade unions would intensify their actions in support of the wrestlers’ agitation to make this a Pan India movement.
They would join in the call given by SKM for justice to our daughters, the pride of the nation.
INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, UTUC
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ALL INDIA BANK EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
Central Office: “PRABHAT NIVAS” Regn. No.2037 Singapore Plaza, 164, Linghi Chetty Street, Chennai-600001 Phone: 2535 1522 M- 984 00 899 20 Web: www.aibea.in e-mail: chv.aibea[at]gmail.com
PRESS RELEASE 18-5-203 By C.H. VENKATACHALAM, GEN SECRETARY, AIBEA
AIBEA supports the agitation of Women Wrestlers for justified cause
The 29th National Conference of All India Bank Employees Association - AIBEA held at Mumbai from 13th to 15th May, 2023 takes note of the brave fight of the women wrestlers to get justice to them and punishment to the perpetrator of sexual harassment.
There are two FIRs registered against Mr Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, MP, the Chairperson of the Wrestler Federation of India for alleged sexual harassment to the women wrestlers, one of the FIR under POCSO Act. They were demanding his removal from the post from WFI and arrest in FIR under POCSO Act.
It is only after the defeat of the ruling party in Karnataka that he is divested from the responsibility of WFI.
These wrestlers have brought laurels for the nation by winning medals for the country in international competitions.
AIBEA extends support to these daughters of the country to get justice and would extend all out help and solidarity in every possible way to achieve their demands as this is the question of dignity and safety of our women in the society.
C.H. VENKATACHALAM GENERAL SECRETARY
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http://www.sacw.net/article15198.html
Radical Socialist Statement on Wrestlers’ Agitation
The politics of the BJP and the entire Sangh Parivar has always been deeply mired in rape culture. And as protests go down, as rape of target groups is normalized, it expands. The sad and tragic days are here where even the sportspersons getting glory for India are not spared of sexual assault. The harassment in the case of wrestlers was done by none other than the president of Wrestling Federation of India, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is also an MP from BJP.
A national wrestling camp was being organized in Lucknow in January 2023 from where the news emerged that female wrestlers were getting assaulted and felt unsafe by the President of WFI. Thus began the struggle for getting justice for the survivors in January 2023, when top wrestlers of the country Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, and Sakshi Malik started protesting against the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. As many as 8 separate incidents of assault have been registered against him. Since this year Olympic qualifiers are supposed to happen, the Sports minister, Anurag Thakur and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief, PT Usha assured the protestors that prompt action will be taken. For that the sports minister formulated a 4 member oversight committee to deliver a report in 4 weeks. Of course, no investigation happened and no report came out.
Tired of the inaction, wrestlers took to the streets on 23 April’ 2023. They are currently protesting at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. Supported by the renowned wrestlers, members of WFI and IOA, the protest is on, against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. One wrestler alleged the WFI chief tried to grope her and touch her inappropriately when she was called to the office on two separate days. While he touched her thighs and shoulder on the first day, on her next visit two days later, Brij Bhushan touched her breast and stomach, saying he wanted to check her breathing pattern. Another wrestler alleged, Brij Bhushan lifted her training jersey without her consent and proceeded to touch her breast and stomach on the pretext of checking her
breathing pattern.
Brij Bhushan is a self-confessed murderer, who has also slapped a wrestler on stage and who was involved in demolition of Babri Masjid.
Tragically, no complaint was registered against the President of WFI till the time Supreme Court intervened. On the orders of the Supreme Court two FIRs against Brij Bhushan Singh and 1 FIR against Assistant Secretary of WFI, Vinod Tomar. The first FIR against Brij Bhushan pertains to the allegations by a minor, registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The second one is on the detailed investigations made by adult complainants and includes relevant sections of IPC relating to outraging of modesty. According to Delhi Police, they have formulated an SIT under female DCP.
The connivance of Delhi Police, the national government and Brij Bhushan is appalling, as nothing has yielded any results and all proceedings are postponed to 27 th May’2023. No statement from the government, no sign of support from the prime minister or home minister for the wrestlers, is at best outrageous.
To add to the woes of the protestors, the area of Jantar Mantar has been waterlogged, so that protestors are not able to sit, let alone sleep. There are reports of female protestors being groped by male police personnel and there is a van stationed at the site to record all activities of the protestors capturing videos, which is in direct violation of their privacy. The situation threatens to undo the country’s recent gains in promoting professional sports opportunities for women – such as the lucrative WPL cricket tournament and a newly announced professional football league — revealing an ugly underbelly where athletes have no voice and no access to a complaint mechanism.
We stand in solidarity with the survivors and the protestors. We demand stringent punishment against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. We also demand dismantling the system of having political heads of sport organizations.
Punish the perpetrators!
Respect Women!
Overthrow this authoritarian, misogynistic government!
Rise in Rage against Fascism and Rape Culture
14/05/2023
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Call given nationally by women’s organisations
Women’s Solidarity Day with the Struggling Wrestlers - 19 May 2023
As we all know, the wrestlers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh - BJP MP - on serious allegations of sexual harassment since 23rd April 2023. Despite registration of FIRs, including 1 under POCSO, the accused still enjoys impunity against any action.
Women’s groups in Delhi call for coordinated protest actions by civil society groups and concerned citizens on 19 May 2023 across the country.
Dilli Chalo!!
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‘How can this happen in a democracy?’: As wrestlers are detained, barricades keep supporters away (May 28, 2023) https://scroll.in/article/1049937/how-can-this-happen-in-a-democracy-as-wrestlers-are-detained-barricades-keep-supporters-away | Sneha
Crackdown and detentions of Women Wrestlers, Farmers and Women Protesting Sexual Harassment | SKM Press Release - May 28, 2023 http://www.sacw.net/article15205.html
AITUC Condemns Repression on Women Wrestlers Protest - Press Release, May 28, 2023 http://www.sacw.net/article15206.html
PUCL Condemns Arrest of Women Wrestlers & supporting Activists And demands their immediate release | May 28, 2023 http://www.sacw.net/article15208.html
Wrestlers protest shows how Indian law is a tool of oppression rather than an instrument of justice by Nandita Haksar (May 29, 2023) https://scroll.in/article/1049932/wrestlers-protest-shows-how-indian-law-is-a-tool-of-oppression-rather-than-an-instrument-of-justice
Wrestlers’ protest is changing the grammar of agitation by Dipsita Dhar (May 29, 2023) https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/wrestlers-protest-is-changing-the-grammar-of-agitation-1221804.html
More Than 1,150 Civil Society Members Demand the Immediate Arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh https://thewire.in/rights/more-than-1150-civil-society-members-demand-immediate-arrest-of-brij-bhushan-sharan-singh
Demands for sexual favours, at least 10 cases of molestation detailed in 2 FIRs against Brij Bhushan https://indianexpress.com/article/india/demands-for-sexual-favours-at-least-10-cases-of-molestation-detailed-in-2-firs-against-brij-bhushan-8641505/
PM’s Silence on Women Wrestler’s Struggle Embolden Offenders by S N Sahu https://www.newsclick.in/pms-silence-women-wrestlers-struggle-emboldens-offenders
Ayodhya Seers Back Brij Bhushan, Demand POCSO Act Amendment
Abdul Alim Jafri | 31 May 2023 https://www.newsclick.in/ayodhya-seers-back-brij-bhushan-demand-pocso-act-amendment
‘Manhandling of wrestlers disturbing… don’t throw your medals in Ganga’: Kapil, Gavaskar, Madan and Class of 83 come out in support
Written by Pratyush Raj
https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/wrestlers-protest-kapil-gavaskar-madan-and-class-of-83-come-out-in-support-8642747/
Video Recording: The Wrestlers’ Struggle: Accountability of Institutions — A zoom discussion organised by Anhad) https://www.facebook.com/anhadspaces/videos/1054966915490148/?__tn__=F
Text of Press Release From National Mahila Panchayat in Solidarity with the Struggling Wrestlers in New Delhi - June 14, 2023 http://www.sacw.net/article15227.html
